Although the cause of his death has yet to be disclosed, the news has unsettled doctors at the unit who have been complaining that severe staff shortages are causing unsafe conditions for staff and patients.

Nine psychiatrists at the facility had previously decried severe staff shortages and announced they were working "under protest" because of dangerous conditions.

Teams from the state attorney general and governor's offices visited the facility in Soledad four days before Watkins' death because of the protest.

Officials with the Department of State Hospitals, which operates the prison's mental health crisis beds unit, said they could not comment specifically on Watkins' death.

"There was a recent patient death at DSH-Salinas Valley. Confidentiality laws prohibit us from releasing names or other confidential information about DSH patients," wrote department spokesman David O'Brien. He said officials are awaiting a Monterey County coroner's report but noted the patient's death "does not appear to be a suicide."

Watkins was one of the unit's 19 patients who were not sentenced to prison but were committed because a court found them incompetent to stand trial.

His death preceded a landmark federal court hearing in Sacramento on Wednesday afternoon in which the state of California hoped to make its case that prison mental health care is up to par and no longer needs federal oversight.

It also underscores what some doctors call a crisis now facing state hospitals and prisons that treat violent, mentally ill inmates.

'Crisis level'

The facility at Salinas Valley State Prison treats high-security inmates with severe mental illness. Built after a federal court order, for several years it was pointed to with pride by corrections officials.

But in recent months, nine psychiatrists at the prison sent letters to the California Department of State Hospitals saying they're now working "under protest" because severe staff shortages are endangering patients and workers.

In January and again in February, psychiatrists at the prison, one of two in Soledad, told state officials that the staffing shortage at the facility's mental health wing has reached "crisis level."

One psychiatrist said Wednesday that by April 1, there will be only two full-time and two part-time psychiatrists serving 373 patients.

DSH spokesman Ralph Montano disputes the claim, and said that as of Wednesday, seven full-time and four part-time psychiatrists were on staff, although some were departing that very day.

"Some are leaving this week and are being replaced by other psychiatrists," Montano said, adding that by April 4, the unit will have eight full-time and five part-time psychiatrists. "DSH is continuing to aggressively recruit to bring on more psychiatrists."

"From time to time, the California Attorney General's Office and the Governor's Office visit state prisons," Lacy said. "A recent visit at Salinas Valley State Prison included a tour of the mental health programs."

Violent past

Watkins' life and death exemplify the custodial limbo mentally ill violent offenders often fall under as they shuffle between state hospitals and prisons.

His violent past was haunted by an apparently worsening mental state, beginning with a juvenile conviction in Seattle for possessing a loaded gun, according to court records.

At some point Watkins moved to Los Angeles, where he was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in 2002 and sentenced to two years in state prison. He returned to prison in 2006 after a parole violation and was released the next year.

Then he was committed to a state hospital, the records show.

In 2011, while under treatment at Atascadero State Hospital in San Luis Obispo County, Watkins allegedly punched an employee in the face, causing head injuries and a fractured facial bone.

According to a report on National Public Radio, the victim said Watkins was serving his second stint at the hospital and told staff he wanted to return to prison.

The assault by Watkins, along with other violent attacks on staff, led to an investigation and inspection of the hospital by CalOSHA, the state's occupational safety overseer, in September 2011. Officials found that staff were even subject to patient assaults during the inspection.

Last year, the state issued about $25,000 in fines related to the safety concerns. As in the Salinas Valley psychiatric unit, employees at Atascadero have complained that low staff-to-patient ratios are creating dangerous conditions.

Watkins returned to the prison system as a mental patient last August, corrections records show, after he was found incompetent to stand trial for the Atascadero assault and a subsequent felony charge of battery on a peace officer. A San Luis Obispo County court official said criminal proceedings had been suspended and that he was still being evaluated throughout last year.

Prison sources say Watkins had been a patient in the mental health unit at Salinas Valley State Prison since December, and said he was found dead last week during staff rounds to check on patients.

Sacramento hearing

The death of a man as young as Watkins under hospital care loomed large as inmates' attorneys told a Sacramento federal judge Wednesday that any move to end federal oversight of prison mental health care is premature.

The state is arguing that improvements in care have exceeded those demanded by the court when federal officials took over prison mental health.

"There is no constitutional violation," corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said. "Is it perfect? Probably not, but is that the goal here?"

She said the state has spent $1 billion on inmate mental health, built new facilities like the one at Salinas Valley, and has increased salaries for psychiatrists and other staff who treat the state's 32,000 mentally ill inmates.

Brown's administration filed a motion in January to end the federal judges' oversight. Judge Lawrence Karlton is expected to rule on the motion by early April.

The proceeding is part of Coleman v. Brown, a lawsuit filed in the 1990s that later merged with another inmate lawsuit about prison medical care. Combined, the cases have led to the realignment of thousands of state prisoners to county custody, a change many call the most dramatic upheaval of California's justice system in modern history.

Cause of death?

Meanwhile, as officials point to each others' agencies or invoke privacy laws regarding mental health patients, little has been made public about Watkins' death.

The Monterey County Sheriff's Office, which handled the autopsy, does not release information on cause of death until the investigating agency in the case gives the OK. The California Department of Corrections says it's the Department of State Hospital's case, while the hospital department says it can't confirm Watkins was even a patient.

Terry Spitz of the Monterey County District Attorney's Office, which investigates suspicious deaths at the two state prisons in Soledad, said his office was informed of the death but hadn't received an autopsy report Wednesday, "and likely never will if foul play isn't suspected."

"We're not anticipating it's a homicide or suicide," Spitz said, adding that the cause of death may remain a "complete mystery," at least until lab tests are completed.